Radio Barkas: Europe’s vintage LP radio party car

Meet Radio Barkas, by its own description: “the smallest mobile radio station in the Netherlands.” I am not sure whether Barkas actually broadcasts via an AM or FM signal. It seems to mostly travel around the Low Countries and the rest of Europe in a tiny green-on-the-inside-grey-on-the-outside Fiat-like automobile.

Inside the vehicle sits a turntable and mixer; atop sets a loudspeaker which broadcasts vintage rock and reggae tunes to throngs of dancing young people. Boxes of ancient LPs from the 1950s and 1960s sit ostentatiously inside the decorated car—Tito Puente, Etta James, even the el Torros!

This is all quite good, I’m sure you’ll agree. Radio Barkas does festivals, events, weddings, street fairs; at last resort, it just goes out on the road and the music happens. Believe it or not, there’s even a “compact version” of the production. Photos and YouTubes below.

About Matthew Lasar

Matthew Lasar is a co-founder of Radio Survivor and its business manager. He is the author of Radio 2.0: Uploading the First Broadcast Medium (http://tinyurl.com/jr8uknk) and teaches history at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Likes: deejays, classical music, Disco, postpunk, cats, free school lunches. Dislikes: money, ideologies, claims that technology will fix everything. Follow him on twitter at @matthewlasar.